Multi-spindle rolling machine

ABSTRACT

A rolling machine head is described in which adjustments for zero clearance between the bearing and the shoulder of the shaft supporting the roller die may be made through the use of an adjustment plug mounted to vary the position of the bearing. This performs the function of shims or spacers commonly used in conventional systems. The machine structure is such as to allow the variation of the clearance between the upper bearing block and the lower bearing plate through the use of a spring loaded upper bearing block. Thus, the machine is able to compensate for variations in the thickness of a material being rolled.

United States Patent [1 1 Tucker Mar. 26, 1974 MULTI-SPINDLE ROLLING MACHINE [76] Inventor: Raymon Z. Tucker, 1925 Borneman Primary Examiner-Mum 1 M St Elkhart, Ind 46514 Attorney, Agent, or firm-William D. Stokes 22 Filed: Feb. 28, 1972 I 1 [57] ABSTRACT I. N 2 9,7 [211 App 0 2 61 A rolling machine head 15 described in which ad ustments for zero clearance between the bearing and the [52] U.S. Cl. 72/l8l, 72/246 shoulder of the shaft supporting the roller die may be [51 Int. Cl B2ld 5/08 made through the 'use of an adjustment plug mounted Field Of Se 72/179, 181, 246, 2 1, to vary the position of the bearing. This performs the 182 function of shims or spacers commonly used in conventional systems. The machine structure is such as to References Cited allow the variation of the clearance between the upper UNITED STATES PATENTS bearing block and the lower bearing plate through the 3,234,769 2/1966 Bretschneider 72/238 use of a spring loaded upper bearing block" 3,690,139 9 1972 Brennan 72/194 machine is able to compensate fer Variations in the 1,020,064 3/1912 Wackermann et al 72/238 x kness of a material being rolled. 3,487,707 l/l970 I 1,673,787 6/1928 Frahm et al. 72/181 x 5 Clams 5 D'awmg F'gures PAIENIEUIARZS m4 3.798.949

SHEET 1 [IF 4 MULTI-SPINDLE ROLLING MACHINE The present invention relates to rolling mills and, more particularly, to a new design for a multi-spindle rolling machine head.

sheets or billets of metal. A rolling mill generally comprises two complimentary roller dies which are mounted a distance from each other such that the clearance between the complimentary dies is approximately equal to the thickness of the metal billet to be rolled. Thus, by way of illustration, if we have a long billet of metal which is, perhaps, 3 or 4 inches wide and it is desired to roll it into a form having an L shaped cross section, we would introduce it between a pair of rollers; one convex and one concave, each of which define a 90 angle. Thus, in a properly operating mill, the two complimentary roller dies would both define the same shape and provide'between them, a clearance equal to the thickness of the material and shaped in the form of the desired roll-form metal product.

In the past, it has been found that the adjustment of clearances in the various settings in the rolling head is extremely critical if it is desired to manufacture a finished product within relatively close tolerances. The conventional way of making these adjustments is with the use of shims and spacers. Adjustments made in this way are very time consuming and inconvenient. It has also been found that it is not possible to achieve the desired dimensional preciseness without subjecting the material to a number of consecutive rolling operations. Each rolling operation requires a pair of rollers. Due to the fact that so many pairs of roller dies have to be adjusted, and also due to the extreme inconvenience encountered in the adjustment of the roller dies, the alignment of a rolling machine is an expensive and time consuming operation and requires the services of highly skilled technicians. Hence, any system which would improve the effectiveness with which adjustments could be made, or wholly do away with some of these adjustments, would provide advantages not heretofore known or achievable with prior art systems.

Another problem encountered in the past with regard to the adjustment of the bearing block assembly of a rolling machine was the readjustment that had to take place when various thicknesses of materials were run through the same set of roller dies. It was found that in order to accomplish the roll-forming of a part without twist or bow, it was necessary to reset the clamps between the upper and lower roller dies.

As noted above, in tli pastfadjustmeiiof the H65; ance between the bearings supporting the shaft on which the roller die is mounted and the shoulder on the rolling machine shaft was accomplished through the use of shims or spacers. The use of shims and spacers was made necessary because of the extreme difficulty in machining bearing holes and shafts without excessive accumulations of dimensional error. In accordance with the present invention, the need for'shims and spac- According to the design of the bearing block assembly of the present invention, adjustment of the bearing block assembly for various thicknesses of material has also been eliminated. This is accomplished by the use of an upper bearing block which is spring loaded to a lower bearing plate in a manner which compensates for a variety of metal thicknesses passing through the roller dies without the necessity of changing the settings. The provision of this feature on the bearing block assembly is particularly important in that we now can roll parts free of any twist or bow due to the factthat we have eliminated the extreme sensitivity to pressure of roller dies to variations in material thicknesses.

A further advantage of the bearing head of the present invention is that the bearing or shaft may be removed for maintenance or replacement purposes very quickly, without disassembling the entire head as is required in conventional machines with counter bored holes or internal thrust bearings. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide apparatus which will roll-form an infinite variety of shapes from light gauge ferrous and non-ferrous materials. I

It is a further object of this invention to provide a rolling machine head which allows the quick and effective adjustment ofa clearance between the bearing and the shoulder of the rolling machine head.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a rolling machine head in which the clearance adjustment between the bearing and shoulder may be accomplished without the use of shims or spacers.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a rolling machine head which allows the easy removal of the bearing or shaft for maintenance or replacement purposes without requiring the disassembly of the entire head.

It is yet still a further object of this invention to provide an upper bearing block of a rolling machine head which is spring loaded in a manner to compensate for a variety of material thicknesses without the resetting of the upper bearing block.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be made clear by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the rolling machine head of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation partially in section of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical transverse section taken along line 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view through the bearing support structure of a pair of roller shafts;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view taken through the bearing block and the bearing plate.

A rolling machine head constructed in accordance with the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying FIGS. 1 through 5.

As is illustrated in FIG. 1, sheet metal is fed into the machine to a first pair of roller dies 25. The upper visible roller of roller pair 25 has a complementing die underneath it which exactly matches its contours and is spaced apart a distance equal to the thickness of materials of the work piece. After being sent through this pair of roller dies, the material is sent through the remaining pairs of roller dies 26, 27 and 28, which progressively bend it until it approaches its final shape. The upper die is supported by bearing plate 1. The roller dies are each mounted on die shafts 3 and 3. Drive is supplied to the sprockets 9, which are connected to the lower die shafts by chains 10. The upper and lower die shafts are driven by the lower die shafts through their respective spur gears 8 and 8'. The entire assembly is mounted on mounting bars 7 and'secured by screws 17. Washers 19 are held on the ends of shafts 3 and 3' by cap screws 18.

Zero clearance is achieved between the bearing 11 and the shoulder 91 on shafts 3 and 3' through the use of bearing screw plugs and 5, each of which is an externally threaded ring with two transverse notches provided to facilitate the installation and removal of the plug from the machine. Bearing screw plugs 5 engage threads 97 in the upper bearing block and 96 in the lower bearing plate. Bearing plates 1 are held spaced apart in parallel relationship by spacing rods 20. Bearing 11 is used to support the shaft 3 and is mounted inside the hole in bearing block 2 and held in its desired position by hearing screw plug 5. Set screw sets bearing screw plug 5. Bearing l 1 is put in its desired position through the adjustment of bearing adjustment screw plug 5. After zero clearance has been achieved, the set screw 15 is then tightened. The inner race 98 of bearing 11 extends out beyond the bearing screw plug 5 so that the forming rolls on the outboard ends of the shaft are firmly secured between the inner' race and washer 19. Set screw 15' performs a similar purpose for screw plug 5' in bearing plate 1. This particular arrangement eliminates the need for shims or spacers that are commonly used in conventional rolling machine heads. This also facilitates the easy removal of the bearing or the shaft for maintenance or replacement purposes without the necessity of disassembling the entire head. These features result in great time savings in both the maintenance, replacement and adjustment of roller dies.

in accordance with the present invention, the upper bearing block 2 is spring loaded to the bearing plate 1 to compensate for a possible variation in material thickness of work pieces for a series of runs. Dowel pins 24, see FIG. 5, restrain relative lateral movement between the bearing plate and the bearing block. The upper bearing block is secured to the lower bearing plate by cap screws 16 acting through springs 12. Screws 13 are used to secure top plate 6 to the upper bearing block 2. Screw 14, in conjunction with jam hex nut 23, is used to adjust the pressure applied between the die rollers and to allow block 2 to move upward.

The clearance between a pair of spring loaded roller dies constructed according to the present invention is accomplished as follows. Referring particularly to FIG. 5, when screw 14 is turned clockwise, it presses down against cap screw 16 and through it, against bearing plate 1. This is also pulling top plate 6 upward, and through the cap screws 13 also pulling the bearing block 2 upward. As a result, the separation between the bearing block 2 and the bearing plate 1 is increased. Corresponding to this increase in the separation between the bearing block and the bearing plate is an increase in the compression of the spring 12 which serves to maintain the desired separation.

in accordance with the present invention, the rolling machine head can be so assembled that it is either an inboard type or an outboard type. This means that roller dies may be mounted inside the bearing plates or outside the bearing plates. This is accomplished with no changes in the bearing plate or block design. The number of spindles or pairs of roller dies is limited only by practicality. The vertical and horizontal pitches are 4 7 also variable within given roller chain or spur gear center dimensions. Furthermore, although there has been described a particular head which operates with a horizontal roller chain type drive, the roller head assembly of the present invention could also be utilized with an all spur gear drive.

While l have described and illustrated, for the purposes of a complete understanding of the present invention, a preferred embodiment, it is understood that this is in no way to be construed as a limitation on scope, as various alterations, changes, substitutions, eliminations and deviations may be made in the form provided without departing from the scope of the invention defined hereinafter in the claims.

I claim:

1. A rolling machine head comprising:

a. first and second bearing means;

b. a first roller shaft having a shoulder, said first roller shaft supported by said first hearing means;

c. a second roller shaft having a shoulder, said second roller shaft supported by said second bearing means;

d. a first roller die mounted on said first roller shaft;

e. a second roller die mounted on said second roller shaft for cooperation with said first roller die;

f. first support means for supporting said first bearing means; i

g. second support means for supporting said second bearing means;

h. first adjustable clearance means threadably engaged with said first support means for adjusting the clearance between the shoulder of the first roller shaft and said first bearing means; and

i. second adjustable clearance means threadably engaged with said second support means for adjusting the clearance between the shoulder of said second roller shaft and said second bearing means, said first and second clearance means being indepen' dently' adjustable.

2. A rolling machine head as in claim 1 further comprising:

j. first means secured to said first support means and extending through said second support means for permitting said second support means freedom of transverse movement relative to said first support means; and

k. tensioning means operatively engaging said second support means and said first element for biasing said second support means toward said first support means.

3. A rolling machine head as in claim 2, further comprising:

l. mechancial means operatively engaging said first means for limiting the proximity of said second support means to said first support means.

4. A rolling machine head comprising:

a. first and second bearings;

b. a first roller shaft mounted on said first bearing;

c. a second roller shaft mounted on said second beard. a first roller die mounted on said first roller shaft;

e. a second roller die mounted on said second roller shaft;

f. first support means for supporting said first bearsaid second support means toward said first support means. 5. A rolling machine head according to claim 4 further comprising:

j. mechanical'means operatively engaging said first means for limiting the proximity of said second support means to said first support means. 

1. A rolling machine head comprising: a. first and second bearing means; b. a first roller shaft having a shoulder, said first roller shaft supported by said first bearing means; c. a second roller shaft having a shoulder, said second roller shaft supported by said second bearing means; d. a first roller die mounted on said first roller shaft; e. a second roller die mounted on said second roller shaft for cooperation with said first roller die; f. first support means for supporting said first bearing means; g. second support means for supporting said second bearing means; h. first adjustable clearance means threadably engaged with said first support means for adjusting the clearance between the shoulder of the first roller shaft and said first bearing means; and i. second adjustable clearance means threadably engaged with said second support means for adjusting the clearance between the shoulder of said second roller shaft and said second bearing means, said first and second clearance means being independently adjustable.
 2. A rolling machine head as in claim 1 further comprising: j. first means secured to said first support means and extending through said second support means for permitting said second support means freedom of transverse movement relative to said first support means; and k. tensioning means operatively engaging said second support means and said first element for biasing said second support means toward said first support means.
 3. A rolling machine head as in claim 2, further comprising: l. mechancial means operatively engaging said first means for limiting the proximity of said second support means to said first support means.
 4. A rolling machine head comprising: a. first and second bearings; b. a first roller shaft mounted on said first bearing; c. a second roller shaft mounted on said second bearing; d. a first roller die mounted on said first roller shaft; e. a second roller die mounted on said second roller shaft; f. first support means for supporting said first bearing; g. second support means for supporting said second bearing; h. first means secured to said first support means and extending through said second support means for permitting said second support means freedom of transverse movement relative to said first support means; and i. tensioning means operatively engaging said second support means and said first element for biasing said second support means toward said first support means.
 5. A rolling machine head according to claim 4 further comprising: j. mechanical means operatively engaging said first means for limiting the proximity of said second support means to said first support means. 